By Chris Evangelista/March 20, 2019 10:00 am EST
THR has the news about the Castle Rock season 2 cast, and storyline. Per their report, “season two will explore a feud between warring clans that comes to a boil when budding psychopath Annie Wilkes, King’s nurse from hell, gets waylaid in Castle Rock.” Tim Robbins will play “Reginald “Pop” Merrill, the famed patriarch of King’s iconic crime family who is dying of cancer and at a reckoning with his family,” with Garret Hedlund taking on the role of “John “Ace” Merrill, the town of Castle Rock’s legendary bully who is taking over his uncle Pop’s business and threatening a fragile peace with nearby Jerusalem’s Lot.” Matthew Alan portrays Chris Merrill, “Pop’s nephew and Ace’s brother who struggles to keep peace between the Merrills and the Somali community.”
Elsewhere in the cast, Yusra Warsama will play “Dr. Nadia Omar, the Harvard-trained Somali medical director of a rural hospital in Jerusalem’s Lot whose rational and scientific mind will be put to the test,” and Barkhad Abdi portrays “Abdi Omar, Nadia’s tough, older brother who leads the charge to build a Somali community center that will deepen the roots of his people in Maine.” These characters are not from any King novel or story I can recall.
As for Eighth Grade breakout Elsie Fisher, she’ll be playing “Annie’s home-schooled teenage daughter who is starting to have questions about her mother’s sanity.” The Annie Wilkes in King’s Misery doesn’t have a daughter, so this version of Annie will likely be quite different from the one we’re used to. In Misery, Annie is a lonely nurse who holds her favorite author hostage, and demands he write a new book just for her.
I loved almost all of Castle Rock, except the final episode, which didn’t quite stick the landing. But as a Stephen King fan, it’s hard to resist this show, and I love the anthology nature they’re taking, where each season will tell a whole new story.
